Jadavpur University, which constituted a committee to probe alleged irregularities in the PhD admissions, has said in a notice that “for all disputed cases of PhD admissions”, the admission and any related action will be provisional “subject to the findings of the committee.”
The dean of the arts faculty issued the notice on September 4 following instructions from the vice-chancellor that PhD admissions may resume in the international relations department.
The university has constituted a two-member probe committee following complaints of irregularities in PhD admissions from the student organisations.
The September 4 notice says: “For all disputed cases of PhD admissions for which the committee constituted by the EC (executive council)....is investigating, the admission and any related action will be provisional and acceptance of the report by the executive council.”
The minutes of the probe committee uploaded on the university’s website on September 3 said that the committee has received “complaints regarding alleged irregularities in respect of the PhD programme of the year 2023-25” from student organisations of the engineering and technology faculty, science faculty and arts faculty.
The teachers’ association of JU also complained of irregularities.
The committee comprising retired Justice Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay and former ISI Calcutta director Bimal Kumar Roy said individuals/ organisations may submit written representations before the committee on or before September 10 in addition to representation already submitted before the university authorities.
A JU official said students’ organisations had alleged irregularities in the admission to the PhD programme at the School of International Relations and Strategic Studies and the international relations department.
“According to them, a student leader with the help of some teachers got admission to the PhD programme even though he submitted his applications after the expiry of the cut-off date. He was allowed to submit the applications offline in contravention of the standard practice which allows online submission,” the official said.
Manojit Mandal, a member of the executive council, said: “There are also allegations that the student’s name featured in the PhD lists of both the school and the department. It should have been either the school or the department.”
The probe committee was constituted in July and it was decided till the submission of its report, the PhD admissions to the school and the department will remain suspended.
Mandal said since the committee is taking time to complete the probe, they have allowed admissions to the PhD programme with the rider that such admissions will be subject to the findings of the committee and acceptance of the report by the executive council.
The dean of the arts faculty in a separate notice on September 4 said that the process of admission to the department of international relations under the faculty council of arts “may now be commenced”.
Allegations of irregularities in PHd admission in JU are not new.
The UGC in early January had sought a response from the JU registrar Snehamanju Basu on a complaint of violations of rules issued by the regulatory body for PhD admissions.
A complaint attached to the UGC’s letter stated that the university had started admitting students under the supernumerary (beyond the stipulated limit) quota, which meant some of the teachers would supervise 15 to 20 students each whereas UGC mandated eight for each professor.
The complaint also alleged corruption in the admission process.
Calls to VC Bhaskar Gupta from this newspaper did not yield any response.